The race to the White house has officially begun, with the first Democratic presidential debate in Miami now over.
Tonight’s showdown featured: Cory Booker, Bill de Blasio, Julián Castro, John Delaney, Tulsi Gabbard, Jay Inslee, Amy Klobuchar, Beto O’Rourke, Tim Ryan and Elizabeth Warren.
The second 2020 debate will take place on Thursday evening with the remaining ten candidates having their chance to prove why they should be America’s next president.
We’ll tell you what’s true. You can form your own view.
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Some reaction from the spin room, where the candidates have sent out allies to make sure the media get all the positives from their efforts.
And here are the times at the mic for the participants.
Cory Booker: 10 minutes, 55 seconds
Beto O’Rourke: 10 minutes, 39 seconds
Elizabeth Warren: 9 minutes, 17 seconds
Julián Castro: 8 minutes, 52 seconds
Amy Klobuchar: 8 minutes, 25 seconds
Tulsi Gabbard: 7 minutes, 22 seconds
Tim Ryan: 7 minutes, 21 seconds
John Delaney: 6 minutes, 49 seconds
Bill de Blasio: 5 minutes, 40 seconds
Jay Inslee: 4 minutes, 52 seconds
In terms of what people were searching for, here are the top-ten candidates:
Here are some snap judgements on the debate , first, pollster Nate Silver.
MSNBC analyst Matthew Miller:
One candidate, Tulsi Gabbard has faced a bit of a backlash over the way she shoehorned her military record into the debate.
Warren got the last statement, which will cause consternation for some candidates. Here it is.
At the end of the debate, candidates got some time to sum up:
Delaney: I’m the son of a union steward who worked to become a successful businessman. I was successful too.. But this is about getting America working.
Ryan: The working class has been divided. It’s time for us to get back on track.
Inslee: I have three grandchildren, and love them all. On my last day on earth I want to look them in the eye and tell them he did everything humanly possible to protect them from the climate crisis.
Gabbard: We don’t have a government for the people anymore. It’s for the rich and powerful. As president my White House would be a beacon of light.
Castro: As president, I’ll make sure people have good job opportunities. In January 2021: “We’ll say adios to Donald Trump.”
Klobuchar: I listen to people, which is important, and I am someone who can win and beat Donald Trump. I’m from the mid-west, and I can beat Trump in places like Michigan and Wisconsin.
Booker: 50 years ago my family were denied a house because of the color of their skin. I will beat Trump by calling for a sense of purpose in this country. I will win by showing the best of who we are.
De Blasio: We need to nominate a candidate who has raised a minimum wage, improved healthcare… We need to put working people first.
O’Rourke: my daughter turned 11 this week. I’m on the stage for her and children across the country. We need a new kind of politics, one directed by the next generation.
Warren: never in a million years did I think I’d stand on a stage like this. When I was a child I didn’t have money to go to college, but I got my chance through community college. It created an opportunity for a girl, and opened my life. We can make this government work for everyone.
On the issue of immigration, senator Amy Klobuchar said 25 per cent people who have won the Nobel Prize on behalf of the United States were born in other countries and are immigrants. (Bioreports points out the figure may actually be larger.)
Beto O’Rourke calls for Trump’s impeachment
Tim Ryan delivered some rather powerful thoughts about the Trump administration’s immigration policies:
Donald Trump clearly believes that he has nothing to fear from the Democrats currently on the stage.
He just tweeted this:
Candidates were asked about foreign wars, Gabbard says we need to get Afghanistan and Iraq. She was responding to Tim Ryan saying it is important to stay engaged.
Ah, it was Inslee that called out Trump.
A few candidates, Gabbard included when for the proliferation of nuclear weapons.
Ill’ wrap up the other Qs in a minute – but when asked the greatest geo-political enemy the US faces.
A mix of answers – most say economically China, De Blasio says Russia, Inslee says climate change.
Somebody went for the popular answer of Donald Trump – but I missed who
Here is Booker on transgender right:
Ms Klobuchar is asked what she has done for people of color.
She says her career has been about “economic opportunity”. When you have an economy that works you have to make sure it works for minority communities as well.
There begins a debate for doing more to help African-American, Latino and other minority communities.
Onto the issue of the LGBT community and Tulsi Gabbard has had to answer for her past rejection of the community – she says she was young and does not feel that way now.
Cory Booker says that more needs to be done to protect the LGBT+ community from violence.
He are onto climate change, and Jay Inslee’s pet issue.
He says Congress needs to pass a 100% clean electrical grid bill, which he’s passed in Washington state.
He says he is the only candidate that has climate as his number one issue.
Beto O’Rourke also has a big plan for climate change, worth trillions of dollars – he claims it would cut greenhouse gas emissions by half.
Mr Castro says the first thing he’d do as president is sign an order re-committing the US to the Paris Accord.
How would you get a Supreme Court justice nominated, when Republican leader in the Senate Mitch McConnell says he would oppose all a Democratic president’s nominees?
Some of the candidates say they’d deal with him by winning the Senate. That is unlikely
Ms Warren is asked if she has a plan to deal with Mr McConnell.
“I do,” she says, then pauses. That gets a round of applause. Sure, she wants a Democratic majority in the Senate, Warren says. But even with that the fight for equality in America goes on. We have to make this Congress reflect the will of people.
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